Bucking Betty

LOL ! Thanks for all your suggestions, much appreciated! A few of them have made the shortlist. For some reason, I'm finding NTR's suggestion of "Cheryl" very amusing (apologies to anyone named, or whose female relative is named, Cheryl). 2P, Artemis was the goddess of the hunt. Rather appropriate for a tri bike. However she did also have a thing for killing off men so I don't know if R will agree with that suggestion ;-) Will keep you posted on a decision which will probably be made after a few glasses of vino on Sunday night.

I've had a much better week work-wise. I've managed to do all my session so far this week (as opposed to only doing 1 from 5 last week). And I've managed to fry my butt by getting back into the physio-ordered stuff. I'm off to Queensland on Friday night for the long weekend - to join Team Mango as R does his first HIM - so I've had to shake up the training a bit this week to fit it all in.

Monday
AM - my maiden (indoor trainer) session on Betty - an AT session with 2 x 10mins AT efforts at 5am.

PM - a (scenic) 1.6k swim.

The fact it was scenic was about the only good thing about it. After 9 days out of the pool (I missed both sessions last week), I felt like I'd lost my 'feel' of the water. I completely forgot what set I was up to. And then I got stuck in a 'medium' lane with a woman practising her kicking sans-flippers. And then I got clipped by a man doing butterfly. I was in a rather ordinary mood by the time I'd finished. But after we got home, we turned on the telly to watch something while eating dinner & discovered a program on "Compass" about the situation of women in Afghanistan 5 years after the end of the Taliban regime. Anyone who thinks the position of women in Afghanistan has changed very much - or is likely to change any time soon - is kidding themselves. Talk about a reality check - a huge reminder of how lucky I am as a woman to be born in the west.

Tuesday
PM - massage + gym session (including 4mins run)

My hip has really improved recently. No niggles during the run & more importantly, none on the walk back to the car which is when it normally really affects me :-)

Wednesday
AM - a day off work (woohoo) and long ride - 49.09k in 2:08 (aver 22.9k/h)

After a sleep-in, I headed out on the M7 bike path with Betty for my long ride. I woke feeling tired & flat and given that it was my first time on a 'road bike', I decided to ignore speed & distance etc & just get used to handling her. So I took it easy, clipping in & out from time to time to wear the new cleats down a little, rode the brakes a bit going down hills (getting used to the difference between brake pads & disc brakes) and took it very carefully when cornering. I just basically had a play. However I wish that Betty had Apollo's lower gears - geez, it was hard work getting up the big hills.

Lance said it's not about the bike. Well, with all due respect Lance my boy, I think the bike makes a wee bit of difference. Today's ride was 2.5k/h faster than my last session on Apollo over largely the same course with, if anything, decreased effort. I wonder what will happen once I stop playing & start riding!

Betty the b*tch however is responsible for my first ever cleat stack - Apollo has never thrown me off before....



It actually look much more impressive than it really is. It's a bit smeared because the only thing I had to clean up the blood was my training program (sorry TA!)

Thursday
PM - 4mins run, LOL.

I went to the gym to do my usual gym session but my butt (Tuesday's gym session) and knee (yesterday) were too sore to do my eccentric exercises so I did my warm up, ran for 4mins on the treadmill & then went home to do my daily dose of physio-ordered stuff. I might even upgrade to 5 mins next week - woohoo - stay tuned ;-)

Tomorrow morning (Friday) I have a 50mins hills session on Betty before work. Then after work it's off to Queensland until Tuesday where the temperature forecast is in the high 20s for the next 4 days. Bring it on :- )